Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.91 AVERAGE
3.91 AVERAGE
Originally published on http://www.alexandriagryder.com/bookreviews/somethingreal
Cheers to Heather Demetrios for making me hate a character almost as much as I hate Dolores Umbridge.
It always fascinates me when a writer can make me want to strangle their characters, because I'm really not a violent person (I saw a dead fish the other day and almost cried). But I mean it when I say that I despised Beth Baker, because a mother is supposed to protect and love and fight for her children.
Bonnie™ Baker's voice was so strong throughout her entire story, and this proves that Heather Demetrios is a fantastic writer. She helped me remember what it's like to be a young girl afraid to go against anything her parents say. My parents are wonderful and they have never tried to put me on a reality show; however, if my dad said I needed to be home by eleven then that was law, and I was home by ten forty-five. Demetrios has written a story about a young girl who realizes she's turning into an adult. The only unfortunate part is Bonnie™ is learning this with the entire world watching her on Baker's Dozen.
Reality television is fun to watch, but I think deep down we all know it's balderdash. Something Real is a really interesting book, because it showcases the scripted side of reality t.v.
“Nothing was your own except the few cubic centimeters inside your skull”
And nothing ever really is. Even Bonnie™'s name isn't her own; it's trademarked. She is not allowed to be her own person, and that's why she decides to become Chloe. She doesn't want anyone to own her name or her. But no one can ever take away how you feel or how you think or who you are. You own your own thoughts, and you should never be ashamed or concerned or afraid of how you think or feel.
“Even Mom doesn't understand how being in front of a camera all the time twists and warps you. How one second it makes you feel unbelievably alive and the next publicly strips you down until all that's left is one big question mark.”
I sometimes wonder what it would be like to not have a Facebook account, because even I have been found guilty of being upset that only twenty people told me 'Happy Birthday' on my "wall". Most of us get excited when our pictures are liked and when our statuses are witty and catchy, and then we somehow feel less when no one comments on our new job update. But it's all of the people who really and truly don't matter who refuse to like a picture of your adorable dog.
All of the people who really love you are going to call you to see how you are doing. They are going to make an effort to see how your birthday was. They are going to FaceTime you to talk because they want to see your face. They are going to write you long letters just because they feel compelled to. And my real friends text and call and FaceTime with me on a weekly basis. My real friends want to read my stories and hear about my book ideas. My real friends write down all of their favorite quotes by me from my blog. My real friends don't care about commenting on Facebook because they see my photos in texts before anyone else sees them.
"There's no telling what anyone will do once a camera's on them."
I love making photos with my Polaroid and film camera because they show life as it really is. I can't go back and retake a moment. I can't make it any more perfect than it already is. And I think we are all guilty of seeing our double chins and asking someone to retake a picture from a higher angle, but it's not real life. We all act so different on social media. We all want to post the very best pictures of ourselves. And we are always being watched; we always have eyes on us.
But it's really magical when you can find people who help you feel comfortable. It's magical when someone else makes you feel like you can be yourself. You can relax and not worry about what you say and how you say it because you know the people around you love you for who you are and not what you have. And I'm so glad to have found friends who think I'm special even when I'm messy.
Cheers to Heather Demetrios for making me hate a character almost as much as I hate Dolores Umbridge.
It always fascinates me when a writer can make me want to strangle their characters, because I'm really not a violent person (I saw a dead fish the other day and almost cried). But I mean it when I say that I despised Beth Baker, because a mother is supposed to protect and love and fight for her children.
Bonnie™ Baker's voice was so strong throughout her entire story, and this proves that Heather Demetrios is a fantastic writer. She helped me remember what it's like to be a young girl afraid to go against anything her parents say. My parents are wonderful and they have never tried to put me on a reality show; however, if my dad said I needed to be home by eleven then that was law, and I was home by ten forty-five. Demetrios has written a story about a young girl who realizes she's turning into an adult. The only unfortunate part is Bonnie™ is learning this with the entire world watching her on Baker's Dozen.
Reality television is fun to watch, but I think deep down we all know it's balderdash. Something Real is a really interesting book, because it showcases the scripted side of reality t.v.
“Nothing was your own except the few cubic centimeters inside your skull”
And nothing ever really is. Even Bonnie™'s name isn't her own; it's trademarked. She is not allowed to be her own person, and that's why she decides to become Chloe. She doesn't want anyone to own her name or her. But no one can ever take away how you feel or how you think or who you are. You own your own thoughts, and you should never be ashamed or concerned or afraid of how you think or feel.
“Even Mom doesn't understand how being in front of a camera all the time twists and warps you. How one second it makes you feel unbelievably alive and the next publicly strips you down until all that's left is one big question mark.”
I sometimes wonder what it would be like to not have a Facebook account, because even I have been found guilty of being upset that only twenty people told me 'Happy Birthday' on my "wall". Most of us get excited when our pictures are liked and when our statuses are witty and catchy, and then we somehow feel less when no one comments on our new job update. But it's all of the people who really and truly don't matter who refuse to like a picture of your adorable dog.
All of the people who really love you are going to call you to see how you are doing. They are going to make an effort to see how your birthday was. They are going to FaceTime you to talk because they want to see your face. They are going to write you long letters just because they feel compelled to. And my real friends text and call and FaceTime with me on a weekly basis. My real friends want to read my stories and hear about my book ideas. My real friends write down all of their favorite quotes by me from my blog. My real friends don't care about commenting on Facebook because they see my photos in texts before anyone else sees them.
"There's no telling what anyone will do once a camera's on them."
I love making photos with my Polaroid and film camera because they show life as it really is. I can't go back and retake a moment. I can't make it any more perfect than it already is. And I think we are all guilty of seeing our double chins and asking someone to retake a picture from a higher angle, but it's not real life. We all act so different on social media. We all want to post the very best pictures of ourselves. And we are always being watched; we always have eyes on us.
But it's really magical when you can find people who help you feel comfortable. It's magical when someone else makes you feel like you can be yourself. You can relax and not worry about what you say and how you say it because you know the people around you love you for who you are and not what you have. And I'm so glad to have found friends who think I'm special even when I'm messy.
There are many thinks to love about this novel--the beautiful brother-sister relationship that Chloe and Benny have, boyfriends who know how to make their partners feel special--my favorite thing about SOMETHING REAL is how well Heather Demetrios emmerses her reader into Chloe's reality TV hell. The chapter titles read like a DVD menu and you really start to see how much Bakers Dozen has shaped how Chloe sees the world. Demetrios also sprinkles tabloid articles, MetaReel promo materials, and TV scripts between chapters.
emotional
hopeful
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Whether it’s Facebook photos, blogs, or reality TV, it’s like nobody is content to just live life. The worth of our existence seems to be measured in pixels and megabytes and “likes.” Those of use whose lives can be downloaded seem to have the most value.How is it possible for a book to make you feel so many different emotions all at the same time? I don't really know how, but somehow Heather Demetrios managed it. I felt so many vivid and conflicting emotions all at the same time in a mere 400 pages.
Hate is a lot like love. It's warm and fills you up until every part of you is tingling to release it.What would it be like if you couldn't even be called by your real name anymore? What if you had to be called by a completely different name that you absolutely hated?
17-year-old Chloe Baker ("Bonnie™") is furious when her mother announces that their family's reality TV show Baker's Dozen (think Kate Plus 8, but with 13 children) will be back on air. All Bonnie™ wants is to have a normal life: hang out with her friends, attend school, have a boyfriend. But how is a normal life possible when you've got cameras filming your every move?
As a protagonist, I sympathized with Chloe completely. Her desire to be a normal teenager, and not have to be constantly followed by cameras, was heartbreaking and realistic. I just couldn't even begin to imagine what it would be like to have to be documented for your whole life.
I loved the emphasis placed on friendship throughout the story. It was a unique focus and I won't hesitate to see that it's not something specifically common in YA literature, but I found it fantastic. Chloe and her older brother Benny have a fantastic relationship, as do Chloe and her best friends Tessa and Mar.
Best of all, though, Something Real really makes you think about reality TV. What would it be like to have to go through something like this for 17 years? To have some of your most personal moments visible to the entire world with simply the click of a Google search button? Is the fame really worth it? Is it really as good as it seems?
I did not expect to like this book as much as I did. I was so emotionally invested in it.
I believed Chloe; her reactions were real. I loved Benny (best brother ever?) and I even liked Lexie because there was so much character development.
I got so angry at MetaReel and their parents and wow seriously JUST LET YOUR KIDS BE HAPPY
Anyway, I'd definitely recommend this book to everyone.
I believed Chloe; her reactions were real. I loved Benny (best brother ever?) and I even liked Lexie because there was so much character development.
I got so angry at MetaReel and their parents and wow seriously JUST LET YOUR KIDS BE HAPPY
Anyway, I'd definitely recommend this book to everyone.
Did you know that I can't watch reality TV? There are a number of reasons why I can't. 1) I get so stressed out, that my stomach cramps. It's silly, I know. The last time I watched Survivor was when Boston Rob was playing and finally won (Like back in 2010/2011), but it made me so sick that it wasn't going to go the way I wanted. It was then that I decided that I couldn't watch reality tv any more, and 2) I don't like how scripted and over the top reality tv is. It's so dramatic and that is not reality. Which I find really annoying. In saying that, I was really intrigued by Heather Demetrois' novel, Something Real, which centres around a family who is in the reality tv spotlight.
Something Real tells the story of Bonnie Baker, a seventeen year old girl whose family has been in the spot light since she was born. Bonnie and her family are the stars of Baker's Dozen a reality show that follows the family around 24/7. Why? Because Bonnie is one of thirteen kids. However, the show has been off the air for the past four years and during that time, Bonnie (who is now known as Chloe) has been able to build a somewhat normal life for herself. All this is jeopardized when the cameras return and the show is brought back to life.
The whole time I was reading Something Real, I felt SO bad for Bonnie and her siblings. They were surrounded by cameras all of the time. They were very rarely granted privacy, and if something needed to be hashed out, it had to be for the viewers pleasure. For this reason Bonnie and her brother Benton do not have the kind of parental relationship that you might expect to have with your parents. This is partially due to the fact that they have not seen their father in over four years, and now their mother (who has since remarried) focuses the majority of her attention on the show and her book deals.
Bonnie has twelve other siblings, and I was looking forward to seeing how they interact with one another. But we didn't really get much of that from this book. Bonnie and Benton have the closest relationship (they are both dealing with pretty private issues that they are trying to keep out of the spotlight). I really liked their relationship. But other than that, there was not a lot of interaction between Bonnie and the other kids. This was a little disappointing.
I have to say that there was nothing incredibly spectacular about this book. It was a good story, but it wasn't anything amazing. It was entertaining at the time, and I enjoyed the characters. I did not like the love story to much. It felt almost like instalove. Which I really hate.
Overall, Something Real was enjoyable and entertaining at the time, in a light and fluffy kind of way, it wasn't the most memorable read. But sometimes that is okay.
Something Real tells the story of Bonnie Baker, a seventeen year old girl whose family has been in the spot light since she was born. Bonnie and her family are the stars of Baker's Dozen a reality show that follows the family around 24/7. Why? Because Bonnie is one of thirteen kids. However, the show has been off the air for the past four years and during that time, Bonnie (who is now known as Chloe) has been able to build a somewhat normal life for herself. All this is jeopardized when the cameras return and the show is brought back to life.
The whole time I was reading Something Real, I felt SO bad for Bonnie and her siblings. They were surrounded by cameras all of the time. They were very rarely granted privacy, and if something needed to be hashed out, it had to be for the viewers pleasure. For this reason Bonnie and her brother Benton do not have the kind of parental relationship that you might expect to have with your parents. This is partially due to the fact that they have not seen their father in over four years, and now their mother (who has since remarried) focuses the majority of her attention on the show and her book deals.
Bonnie has twelve other siblings, and I was looking forward to seeing how they interact with one another. But we didn't really get much of that from this book. Bonnie and Benton have the closest relationship (they are both dealing with pretty private issues that they are trying to keep out of the spotlight). I really liked their relationship. But other than that, there was not a lot of interaction between Bonnie and the other kids. This was a little disappointing.
I have to say that there was nothing incredibly spectacular about this book. It was a good story, but it wasn't anything amazing. It was entertaining at the time, and I enjoyed the characters. I did not like the love story to much. It felt almost like instalove. Which I really hate.
Overall, Something Real was enjoyable and entertaining at the time, in a light and fluffy kind of way, it wasn't the most memorable read. But sometimes that is okay.
Something Real
by Heather Demetrios
I was originally drawn to read this book because of the interesting perspective it promised. I know I'm definitely guilty of watching a bit of reality TV, and we've seen that the people who are featured on those types of shows aren't always portrayed as "realistically" as they the TV stations claim. I expected something unique from this book, and it delivered.
First of all, I loved how the author inserted random media bits about the show into the story. Don't get me wrong, it was excellent writing and I was never bored while reading, but I'm a sucker when there are extra little tidbits embedded into the story, such as interviews, parts of the show's websites, and news articles. As well as being entertaining, they also really served to explain the history of the show and the difference in how the media portrayed Chloe and her family as opposed to how they actually were. It was a good choice by the author to put the information in this way instead of having Chloe relate it all to the plot.
More about Chloe -- I really like the contrast of this book. It's about a "reality TV" show that couldn't be farther from the truth and it's told from the perspective of a pretty "real" girl. Chloe has done almost everything she could possibly do to distance herself from her past life as the star of Baker's Dozen television show. America watched her grow up from an adorable unexpected child from a mother who thought she couldn't have to kids to a troubled teenager who attempts suicide at one point. By the time the story begins, Chloe has changed her name (it was previously Bonnie™, always with the trademark) and is currently going to a high school where, with the exception of her brother Benny, no one knows about her past.
Of course, just when Chloe finally feels like she has a chance at a semi-normal life, her mother and step-dad renew the show for another season as Baker's Dozen: Fresh Batch. Chloe is understandably upset, and she reacts just as she has in the past, by lashing out and running away. Naturally, the cameras catch all of this. One of the more interesting concepts in this book was the way Chloe struggles to behave in a way that gets her point across without being portrayed as an out-of-control brat to the media.
This is why I really loved Chloe's character. She's got her good qualities (independent and tough) and bad qualities (tendency to run away from her problems) but what I admired most was the way she progressed as the book went on. She deals with a lot of shit through the course of the story as well as continually struggling with some previous baggage from the show, but she never completely shuts down and goes all "woe-is-me." She gets close a couple of times, but she's matured enough from her past to realize that she has to adapt to get through. For example, her parents' marriage dissolves because a producer of the show tricks her into catching her father with another woman, all while the camera is rolling. Then he threatens her to end the show if she doesn't cooperate (which is tempting, but she realizes that her large family needs the revenue from the show to survive) and forces her to be filmed while at school.
As you can probably image, the whole being-on-a-reality-TV-show thing doesn't exactly help Chloe's love life. However, she somehow manages to meet Patrick, and he doesn't run away when she finally has to tell him about her TV-star-status. The two have a bit of a "forbidden love affair" with Chloe trying to hide the fact that she has a boyfriend from the media. As expected, they're eventually found out, and things get a bit dicey for a while, but Patrick is a pretty understanding guy and things work out in the end. I really liked that even though Chloe was used to being pretty independent and dealing with her problems on her own, she handled things better when she was more balanced and leaned on Patrick for support sometimes.
The only thing I felt this book was missing was a little more interaction with her younger siblings. Benny, her half-brother (along with Lexie, he had a surrogate mother when Beth Baker thought she couldn't get pregnant) is Chloe's best friend, and while I enjoyed the friendship they had despite all their problems with the show, I kind of wanted to see more of Chloe's relationships with her little siblings. There are a couple of scenes where she is forced to babysit or interact with her siblings with the cameras rolling, but otherwise there's not a lot going on there. (The main exception is that when she leaves the house at the end of the book, she leaves notes and chocolates on their beds, but even that isn't too much.)
On the other hand, I adored the way Chloe matured in her relationship with her sister, Lexie. They fight pretty often at the beginning of the story, and Chloe has a pretty negative view of her sister. She privately thinks that her sister is kind of a slut, and doesn't think twice to point out when her clothes are extremely tight or when she's flirting with random guys. One of my favorite moments in the story is after Chloe breaks up with Patrick, and Lexie's there to comfort her (well, as well as she can, anyway) even though the two usually have a pretty hostile relationship.
Speaking of hostile relationships, I adored the main "villain" in the character - Chloe's mom, RealMom™ Beth™ Baker-Miller. I understand the fact that she's doing the show to provide for her family, but she's selfish. The whole reason the show started was because she contacted the company with her dream of having thirteen kids (although her husband was never completely on board) and then it became a lifeline as a way of keeping everybody fed. She might succeed in the technical aspect of parenting, such as organizing schedules and keeping everybody together, but she completely fails Chloe especially in many times of her life, when Chloe just needed some love and someone to see where she was coming from without the cameras rolling 24/7. To the public, it appears that she's a doting, concerned mother, but Chloe's point of view reveals that she's actually pretty absentee.
Overall, I really adored this book. As I mentioned, I had high hopes, and Something Real never let me down. Chloe was a pretty relatable character in spite of her extreme situation, which is a pretty big compliment to the author. I would read this book again!
by Heather Demetrios
I was originally drawn to read this book because of the interesting perspective it promised. I know I'm definitely guilty of watching a bit of reality TV, and we've seen that the people who are featured on those types of shows aren't always portrayed as "realistically" as they the TV stations claim. I expected something unique from this book, and it delivered.
First of all, I loved how the author inserted random media bits about the show into the story. Don't get me wrong, it was excellent writing and I was never bored while reading, but I'm a sucker when there are extra little tidbits embedded into the story, such as interviews, parts of the show's websites, and news articles. As well as being entertaining, they also really served to explain the history of the show and the difference in how the media portrayed Chloe and her family as opposed to how they actually were. It was a good choice by the author to put the information in this way instead of having Chloe relate it all to the plot.
More about Chloe -- I really like the contrast of this book. It's about a "reality TV" show that couldn't be farther from the truth and it's told from the perspective of a pretty "real" girl. Chloe has done almost everything she could possibly do to distance herself from her past life as the star of Baker's Dozen television show. America watched her grow up from an adorable unexpected child from a mother who thought she couldn't have to kids to a troubled teenager who attempts suicide at one point. By the time the story begins, Chloe has changed her name (it was previously Bonnie™, always with the trademark) and is currently going to a high school where, with the exception of her brother Benny, no one knows about her past.
Of course, just when Chloe finally feels like she has a chance at a semi-normal life, her mother and step-dad renew the show for another season as Baker's Dozen: Fresh Batch. Chloe is understandably upset, and she reacts just as she has in the past, by lashing out and running away. Naturally, the cameras catch all of this. One of the more interesting concepts in this book was the way Chloe struggles to behave in a way that gets her point across without being portrayed as an out-of-control brat to the media.
This is why I really loved Chloe's character. She's got her good qualities (independent and tough) and bad qualities (tendency to run away from her problems) but what I admired most was the way she progressed as the book went on. She deals with a lot of shit through the course of the story as well as continually struggling with some previous baggage from the show, but she never completely shuts down and goes all "woe-is-me." She gets close a couple of times, but she's matured enough from her past to realize that she has to adapt to get through. For example, her parents' marriage dissolves because a producer of the show tricks her into catching her father with another woman, all while the camera is rolling. Then he threatens her to end the show if she doesn't cooperate (which is tempting, but she realizes that her large family needs the revenue from the show to survive) and forces her to be filmed while at school.
As you can probably image, the whole being-on-a-reality-TV-show thing doesn't exactly help Chloe's love life. However, she somehow manages to meet Patrick, and he doesn't run away when she finally has to tell him about her TV-star-status. The two have a bit of a "forbidden love affair" with Chloe trying to hide the fact that she has a boyfriend from the media. As expected, they're eventually found out, and things get a bit dicey for a while, but Patrick is a pretty understanding guy and things work out in the end. I really liked that even though Chloe was used to being pretty independent and dealing with her problems on her own, she handled things better when she was more balanced and leaned on Patrick for support sometimes.
The only thing I felt this book was missing was a little more interaction with her younger siblings. Benny, her half-brother (along with Lexie, he had a surrogate mother when Beth Baker thought she couldn't get pregnant) is Chloe's best friend, and while I enjoyed the friendship they had despite all their problems with the show, I kind of wanted to see more of Chloe's relationships with her little siblings. There are a couple of scenes where she is forced to babysit or interact with her siblings with the cameras rolling, but otherwise there's not a lot going on there. (The main exception is that when she leaves the house at the end of the book, she leaves notes and chocolates on their beds, but even that isn't too much.)
On the other hand, I adored the way Chloe matured in her relationship with her sister, Lexie. They fight pretty often at the beginning of the story, and Chloe has a pretty negative view of her sister. She privately thinks that her sister is kind of a slut, and doesn't think twice to point out when her clothes are extremely tight or when she's flirting with random guys. One of my favorite moments in the story is after Chloe breaks up with Patrick, and Lexie's there to comfort her (well, as well as she can, anyway) even though the two usually have a pretty hostile relationship.
"Bonnie™." Her voice is soft, and I feel the bed sag as she sits beside me. "Did he break up with you because of this?"
I shake my head. "I bro-broke up with ... him."
"Wow," she says. "Your relationship is starting to look like a CW show."
This gets a begrudging snort out of me. "Well, Patrick is not a CW kind of guy, so it's just as well."
Lex puts a tentative hand on my shoulder. It's weird having her touch me, and I can tell from the stiffness in her hand that the feeling is mutual.
"That was brave of you," she says.
Speaking of hostile relationships, I adored the main "villain" in the character - Chloe's mom, RealMom™ Beth™ Baker-Miller. I understand the fact that she's doing the show to provide for her family, but she's selfish. The whole reason the show started was because she contacted the company with her dream of having thirteen kids (although her husband was never completely on board) and then it became a lifeline as a way of keeping everybody fed. She might succeed in the technical aspect of parenting, such as organizing schedules and keeping everybody together, but she completely fails Chloe especially in many times of her life, when Chloe just needed some love and someone to see where she was coming from without the cameras rolling 24/7. To the public, it appears that she's a doting, concerned mother, but Chloe's point of view reveals that she's actually pretty absentee.
Overall, I really adored this book. As I mentioned, I had high hopes, and Something Real never let me down. Chloe was a pretty relatable character in spite of her extreme situation, which is a pretty big compliment to the author. I would read this book again!
This was a really enjoyable YA book. Bonnie(tm) Barker has been on camera literally her entire life--her birth was on film--as part of the reality TV program featuring her and her 12 siblings quaintly entitled "Baker's Dozen." But Bonnie(tm), who now goes by Chloe, has decided she has had enough. She is 17, and she wants a life. She tries to get through to her mom, but her mom doesn't seem to have time to listen.
Also, the students in her government class are reading "1984," because, you know, symbolism.
I highly recommend this one.
Also, the students in her government class are reading "1984," because, you know, symbolism.
I highly recommend this one.
I love this with all of my heart. I read 300 pages in one night when I was supposed to be sleeping. I think's fair to say that I was pretty addicted. Definitely one of my favorites.
I didn't want this to end... I hope a sequel is written because I still felt like we missed a bit of the ending... I'd like to know more about the world and the family